New hires at Bitreserve, Factom

Bitcoin wallet startup Bitreserve announced Monday it has hired Anthony Watson as its president and chief operating officer.

Watson joins Bitreserve from Nike Inc., where he served as the global chief information officer, sat on the Executive Committee, and developed a comprehensive and international five-year transformation and cybersecurity strategy for the company. Watson previously served as managing director and CIO of Europe Retail & Business Banking and Global Operations at Barclays Bank PLC, where he exercised years of global banking and financial operations expertise developed at Wells Fargo & Co and First-e Bancorp, Europe’s first Internet bank.

As president and COO of Bitreserve, Watson will lead the company’s global operations as it enhances its mission to change the world by changing how people access, hold, and move money.

“I am thrilled to join Bitreserve at such a pivotal moment in the evolution of cloud money and financial technology,” said Watson in a company blog post. “Money is a common language around the world and Bitreserve democratizes how people access, hold, and move value. We have the unique opportunity to craft a lasting legacy of delivering transparency, massive innovation, and positive social impact to financial services and in peoples’ everyday lives.”

Factom logo

Factom, a company that creates a general purpose data layer for the Bitcoin blockchain, announced Monday that Jacob Dienelt, formerly of Morgan Stanley, would be its new head treasurer.

Factom said in a press release that Dienelt, who managed a Future Specialists desk from Morgan Stanley’s New York offices, was hired as part of Factom’s focus on Bitcoin asset management for its software token sale.

Dienelt said in the release that “after two years traveling to Bitcoin conferences, mining, and running a paper wallet company, I’m glad to have found home in the space.”

Commenting on Dienelt’s addition to the Factom team, David Johnston, Factom’s board chairman, said in the press release that “as the world’s large companies and institutions begin adopting blockchain technology, it naturally follows that their top people will get involved in projects such as Factom in order to be leaders in transition.”

Factom logo courtesy of Factom